A spell of Mayan magic

Chichen Itza has the most impressive Mayan ruins in Mexico, including El Castillo pyramid and Tzompantli (Temple of Skulls).
Cenote Ikil, or "Sacred Blue Well", is one of nature's works of art. Sunshine and water pour into the limestone sinkhole as bats and swallows dash in and out. It is 60 m in diameter and 40 m deep, while the cave opening is 25 m above.

The good news is that I can not only admire it, but also go snorkeling. The water is refreshing and cold. Swimming toward the vines and waterfalls, I can see black catfish nuzzling around the roots of various plants.

Looking up, I feel serene, as if I am in a grand cathedral.

Cenote Ikil is one of more than 8,000 cenotes, or sinkholes, in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Filled mainly by water from underground rivers they nurtured Maya civilization from AD 250 for about seven centuries.

Ancient Mayans believed some of these cenotes were gateways to the afterlife and threw valuable items and even human sacrifices into them.

Not far away from Cenote Ikil is the famous Cenote Sagrado, also known as the "Sacred Well" or "Well of Sacrifice", in Chichen Itza.

From 1904 to 1910, American diplomat Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the cenote and discovered gold artifacts, jade and pottery. He also found human remains, possibly confirming legends that told of sacrifices to the rain god.


The cliffs around it are vertical and the water is murky green. It looks deep and lifeless and is part of a tour of the grand ruins of Chichen Itza.

A two-hour drive from Merida, the capital of Yucatan, or Cancun, Chichen Itza was the capital of one of the most powerful ancient Maya city states.

Named one of the "new seven wonders of the world" in an online poll in 2007, alongside our Great Wall, and listed as a World Heritage site, it is the most famous, studied and visited Mayan ruins in Mexico.

Its landmark is El Castillo, or the Castle of Kukulcan, a massive temple palace rising 30 m from the ground in the center of a grassy plaza that was built between AD 650 and 800. What makes it a wonder of the world is not its height and history, but the intelligence that went into building it.

The pyramid shape is actually a huge Mayan solar calendar made of stones. Its four sides each have 91 steps which, added to the top platform, makes 365, the number of days in a year. On each face of the pyramid are 52 flat panels, symbolizing the 52 years in the "Calendar Round".

Most amazing of all, around March 21 and Sept 21, the setting sun forms a series of triangles on two of these 91-step stairways that look like "the feathered serpent" god Kukulcan.

You don't need to know much about the technical details of its construction, however, to enjoy its brilliance.

At the northwestern corner of the main plaza, Principle Ball Court is the largest Mesoamerican ball court in the world. It is 149 m long and a game called poktapok, a sort of medieval soccer, was played there. Two teams of seven had to knock a rubber ball through a pair of stone hoops built on two almost vertical side walls, 3 m above the ground. The challenge was to score using just your hip.

It is said the losing captain, and perhaps his teammates as well, were sacrificed to the gods; though another version has it that the winning captain had the honor of being decapitated by the losing captain. Either way, it was a game with big stakes.

El Castillo and Principle Ball Court are just two of some 600 stone buildings scattered about the area. Most visitors are on group day-trips from Merida or Cancun and trying to appreciate the huge site in just three hours is impossible, I discovered.

Invited by the Mexico Tourism Board, Best Day Travel, based in Cancun and AeroMexico, I went to Mexico in late October with 10 other journalists for a 10-day tour. Our focus was the Maya lands of the Yucatan Peninsula and we stayed there for five days.


Cenote Ikil is a perfect getaway from the scorching sunshine.
While we did see many of the region's major cultural and historical sites, it was difficult to appreciate them fully in such a short time.

A three-hour drive from Cancun, Coba was settled earlier than Chichen and was bigger. Its heyday was AD 600 and it was mysteriously abandoned about AD 900.

Today dozens of ruins poke through the dense jungle, including Nohoch Mul (The Great Pyramid), which is the region's tallest Mayan structure at 42 m, and many stelae with human figures in low relief, protected by a kind of thatch-roof.

The most efficient way to explore the city that once covered 50 sq km is to hire a bicycle. Later, we went to Tulum, just one-hour's drive away.

Compared with Chichen and Coba, Tulum is much smaller and the pyramids are less than 10 m tall.

What makes Tulum stand out is its setting: The gray-black buildings sit on cliffs overlooking a palm-fringed beach, lapped by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Elegant frigatebirds and huge pelicans can be seen above the cliffs.

The best way to enjoy Tulum is to put on a swimsuit and lie on the beach overshadowed by the ruins, like the iguanas that sun themselves on the roofs of Mayan buildings.


Uxmal was my favorite Mayan site in Yucatan, partly because we got a whole afternoon to stay there while there was a light and sound show in the evening. Of course, the beautiful structures and the perfect way they blended with the environment were good reasons too.

Uxmal was another World Heritage site. While visitors are not allowed to ascend major pyramids in Chichen Itza and Coba, you can climb on top of the Great Pyramid in Uxmal.

Sitting on top of it, you can see the grand 100-m-long Governor's Palace on the right hand side, overlooking Ball Court on the left and Nunnery Quadrangle (a military academy, royal school and palace complex) in the front. Facing is the 39-m Pyramid of the Magician on the far right, set against a backdrop of rolling hills covered by green jungle. There I enjoyed the sunset playing its magic on the ruins.

Source: China Daily/Agencies